BitDegree is a blockchain-powered online education platform that aims to change the way we get a degree. Find out how it works today in our review.

What Is BitDegree?

BitDegree, found online at BitDegree.org, aims to revolutionize education using blockchain technology. The company describes its platform as “the world’s first blockchain-powered online education platform with token scholarships and tech talent acquisition.”

BitDegree is powered by the Ethereum blockchain. The goal is to provide a better online education experience for students. Key features will be a clear and transparent blockchain-based reward system, achievement tracking, and the ability for companies to recruit tech talent from the pool of students.

Unlike other blockchain startups, BitDegree isn’t completely starting from the bottom. The developers are building BitDegree on a foundation of 29 million (!) existing users. Those users come from Hostinger and 000webhost, both described as a “loyal, web passionate, learning and open to innovation worldwide community.”

BitDegree sees an opportunity in the world of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The number of MOOCs has risen steadily since 2012. Coursera and CodeCademy are two of the most popular providers. Together, they’re worth over $1 billion.

What Problems Does BitDegree Seek To Solve?

BitDegree’s creators have identified crucial problems in the online education world. Those problems include all of the following:

Education is Flawed Globally: Universities fail to teach students practical skills needed to participate in a modern workforce. BitDegree believes this is related to a lack of communication between universities and employers. BitDegree wants to allow employers to communicate with upcoming talent through smart incentives – which could mean students are getting paid to learn.

Recruit Tech Talent: The global recruitment market is worth over $200 billion. The average US company spends $4,000 filling an open position. BitDegree aims to provide global employer branding to millions of BitDegree students by sponsoring smart incentives.

Friction in the Marketplace: BitDegree aims to use digital tokens to build a frictionless ecosystem. Tokens will be used to create a frictionless marketplace between students, employers, and the education platform.

Poor Course Completion Rates: BitDegree’s whitepaper mentions that Coursera and CodeCademy are two of the largest players in the MOOC space. However, both platforms have “abysmal course completion results.” On average, just 5% of students complete a course. BitDegree aims to change this by paying interested students to learn.

How Does It Work?

Students can sign up for BitDegree today and start earning tokens as a scholarship and reward. You can take an MVP of BitDegree for a test run here.

In that MVP, you can browse through a selection of available courses. The courses are designed to prepare students for a career in tech, blockchain, programming, and other areas. Sample courses listed today include:

Web Development Theory

Coding Fundamentals

Deep Learning

Blockchain Basics

Smart Contract Development and Solidity

Ethereum Development: Truffle and Open Zeppelin

Over a dozen course names are currently listed on BitDegree. However, the courses are all listed as “coming soon”. The first course is scheduled to launch in January 2018.

How Do BitDegree Tokens Work?

BitDegree tokens aim to revolutionize education. The tokens can be exchanged between all parties involved in the platform, including students, sponsors, and third parties. Here are the three main uses for tokens:

Companies as sponsors are the main fuel for a sustainable BitDegree economy; companies have an economic incentive to spend BitDegree tokens in order to recruit tech talents while also enhancing employer branding and advertising

Students can receive BitDegree tokens as smart incentives (scholarships); students are rewarded smart incentives in exchange for achieving certain milestones in an online course, as chosen by a company

Anyone can exchange and redeem BitDegree tokens for digital goods and services; like many growing platforms, the value of BitDegree tokens is expected to rise over time

Who’s Behind BitDegree?

Key members of the BitDegree team include Andrius Putna (Co-Founder and CEO), who has 11 years of software engineering experience. He’s also the founder of 000webhost, the world’s first and largest free cloud hosting platform for learning and testing.

Other members of the team include Danielius Stasiulis (Co-Founder and CBO), and Martynas Andriuškevičius.

Between 2007 and 2016, Putna amassed a 29 million person userbase on 000webhost. That userbase will become some of the first members of BitDegree. The company began developing BitDegree in Q1/Q2 2017.

By Q1 2018, they hope to launch the first online course through their platform.

The BitDegree Token Sale

The BitDegree token is an ERC20 token built on Ethereum. The ICO is scheduled for Q4 2017, although a date has not yet been announced. The token will take place over a 30 day period (or when a hard cap is reached).

The token sale is set at an exchange rate of 1 ETH = 1,000 BitDegree tokens. The goal is to raise $5 million USD, with a maximum goal (hard cap) of $25 to $30 million.

Out of the total supply of 1.5 billion tokens, 51% (765 million) will be available to the public through the token sale. Out of the remaining tokens, 25% will go to scholarships, 10% to the BitDegree Foundation, 10% to the development team, and 4% for bounties, advisors, and partners.

BitDegree Conclusion

BitDegree is an online education platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform aims to change the world of MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses. Today, MOOCs are more popular than ever before. However, modern platforms are built on centralized technology. They also have various problems – like low course completion rates and lack of communication between future employers and students.

BitDegree aims to solve that problem. You can learn more about the project and the upcoming token sale today at BitDegree.org.